SAN ANTONIO—Whatever dream world Danny Green has slipped into over the five games of these NBA Finals, Spurs center Tim Duncan has but one wish: “I hope he doesn’t wake up.”

It took just five games for Green to match and surpass the 3-point record for an NBA Finals, besting the 22 that Ray Allen made for Boston in the 2010 Finals—a seven-game series. Consider that Green shot 6-for-10 from the 3-point line in Sunday night’s 114-104 win for the Spurs, and in doing so, actually dropped his shooting numbers from the arc, which had been at 67.9 percent.

If by a couple Green means 25, then, well, he is right on. Green has been making contested jumpers. He has been making open jumpers. Lately, it doesn’t seem that Miami can find an answer for his offense.

“That will be something that we have to correct, and we just got to do it better,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Got to do it harder, and be more committed. He’s getting some open looks, and he’s making some contested looks. But the open looks are the ones that are killing us.”

Overall, Green is averaging 16.0 points per game in the Finals, and that’s enough of a surprise in itself. Green has worked himself into a useful player for the Spurs, the starting shooting guard who averaged a solid, if modest, 10.5 points this year. He has become one of the league’s most consistent 3-point shooters, making 42.9 percent this year after hitting 43.6 percent last year.

But there was some reason to wonder whether Green would be able to hold up as the stakes were raised in the Spurs’ bid for a championship. Green scored just eight points total in the final two games of the conference finals this year, and in last year’s conference finals loss to the Thunder, he was just 8-for-31 (25.8 percent) from the field and 4-for-23 (17.4 percent) from the 3-point line. It got so bad that coach Gregg Popovich pulled him from the starting five and played him only eight minutes in the final two games.

“It was a slump,” Green said. “It was bad shooting, lost a lot of confidence. It helped me to mature as a player. Whether I’m hitting shots or missing shots, I still have to be active defensively. Pop is always yelling at me, sprint back, rebound, get on the floor, get the loose balls.

"So defensively, I have to be active, and offense will come. Whether I miss shots or not, I still have to be effective defensively. Shoot the next one as—if I missed 10 or made 10, regardless, shoot the next one as if it’s going in.”

If it seems, lately, that Green has been shooting the next one as if it is going in there is a good reason for that—chances are, it is going in.